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Canada Urges Citizens to Leave Lebanon While Flights Are Available

Smoke billows after Israeli shelling on the southern Lebanese border village of Dhaira on October 16, 2023. (AFP)
Smoke billows after Israeli shelling on the southern Lebanese border village of Dhaira on October 16, 2023. (AFP)
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Canada Urges Citizens to Leave Lebanon While Flights Are Available

Smoke billows after Israeli shelling on the southern Lebanese border village of Dhaira on October 16, 2023. (AFP)
Smoke billows after Israeli shelling on the southern Lebanese border village of Dhaira on October 16, 2023. (AFP)

Canadians should consider leaving Lebanon while they can because of heightened security risks in the region, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Monday, after Ottawa helped evacuate a group of Canadians from the West Bank into Jordan.

"As the crisis in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel continues to unfold, the security situation in the region is becoming increasingly volatile," Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on X, the platform formerly called Twitter.

"Canadians in Lebanon should consider leaving while commercial flights remain available," Joly said.

Like other countries, Canada is trying to evacuate citizens, permanent residents and their families from the region after Hamas' deadly attack on Israel this month and the subsequent Israeli military retaliation.

Canada has been using two military planes to airlift people who needed help leaving Israel, and earlier on Monday, Joly said the first group of Canadians had safely crossed from the West Bank into Jordan.

There are also about 300 people in Gaza that Canada is seeking to bring out through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.

Five Canadians have been killed in the Hamas attack on Israel, an official from the foreign ministry said on Sunday, while three are still missing.

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Top Houthi Leaders Flee Sanaa Amid Trump-Ordered US Strikes

Top Houthi leaders disappear from Sanaa, communication cut off (Houthi Media)
Top Houthi leaders disappear from Sanaa, communication cut off (Houthi Media)
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Top Houthi Leaders Flee Sanaa Amid Trump-Ordered US Strikes

Top Houthi leaders disappear from Sanaa, communication cut off (Houthi Media)
Top Houthi leaders disappear from Sanaa, communication cut off (Houthi Media)

Senior Houthi leaders have disappeared from public life in Sanaa, gripped by fear of US airstrikes ordered by President Donald Trump, now entering their third week, sources in Yemen said.

The first-tier leadership of the Iran-aligned group is believed to have fled the capital, which remains under Houthi control, seeking shelter in remote areas of Saada and Amran provinces.

According to informed sources, the group’s leaders have severed traditional communication channels and several have either gone into hiding or relocated to undisclosed locations as a precaution against possible targeted strikes.

Since the launch of US airstrikes on March 15, senior and mid-level Houthi leaders have vanished from public view and social media platforms, Yemeni sources say, as fear of targeted attacks continues to grow within the group’s ranks.

Informed sources confirmed there has been no trace of the group’s top two tiers of leadership - neither in the institutions under Houthi control in Sanaa, nor on the streets and neighborhoods they once frequented in luxury vehicles.

Even the sectarian events that Houthi leaders were known to regularly attend have reportedly gone on without their visible presence.

The Houthi group has remained tight-lipped about the extent of its human and military losses following US airstrikes ordered by Trump.

However, sources say several leaders not belonging to the ruling family of Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi are still believed to be in Sanaa.

Many of these figures have adopted strict security measures to avoid detection, including travelling in vehicles with tinted windows and covering their faces with cloaks when leaving temporary residences, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The precautions reflect growing fears of betrayal or being targeted by further strikes.

A source in Sanaa revealed that third-tier Houthi officials—mostly tribal figures and field supervisors—were instructed to flee to the northern provinces of Saada, Amran and other areas as US air raids intensified.

According to the source, mid-level Houthi officials have lost all direct contact with the group’s senior leadership after the latter switched locations and shut down their communication lines.